Daily Dryland Swimming Workouts #24: Functional Cardio

For the past few months, SwimSwam has been posting a daily swimming workout to help inspire swim coaches around the world who are looking for new ideas to try with their swimmers. Since most of the world’s pools are currently closed for business, we wanted to give swimmers and coaches an alternative set of dryland workouts to use to stay fit during the quarantine. These workouts will be designed to be done around the house. Some will use basic equipment, like medicine balls or stretch cords, while others will be all body-weight exercises.

These workouts are provided for informational purposes only.

See more at-home training ideas on our At Home Swim Training page here

Cardio Workout

Most of our focus with these daily dryland swimming workouts have been focused on strength, but in today’s workout we’ll focus on cardiovascular strength.

Rather than slow, steady-state running, though, we’ll focus on a workout that mimics a swimming workout. Specifically, interval training – periods of high intensity, followed by rest.

Warmup

Use this 7-minute running warmup to make sure your legs are ready for the effort.

Main Set

1. The Farmer’s Walk – This requires weights, one in each hand. Don’t have any dumbbells to use? Try a weighted duffel bag in each hand (more here). This one is simple – Pick them up, carry them for 100 feet, set them down (set them down by bending with your knees, not back – like good squat form). Do about 15 reps. This should be with a challenging weight, 20-80 pounds (total) depending on age and strength.

2. 200 Yard Sprints – Mark off a 200 yard course (one step is about a yard) on the sidewalk or running path. Sprint for 200 yards. Walk for 30 seconds to recover, lineup, and sprint again. Repeat until you’ve done 10 x 200 yard sprints, or about a mile.

3. Streamline Jumps – Jump in a perfect streamline position, get extension. 60 second jumps, 30 seconds rest, 8 rounds.

Cool Down

You’re probably going to need it after this one, so get a good stretch.